Kokatat Outfit. 2 big pockets and small pocket by the zipper area for a knife, or flare box. Fits pen flare container with 6 rockets. Perfect fit.

My partner has 4 pocket PFD but I need to ask him who makes it and what model it is.

Matt

The vest weighs 3.12 lbs. It's about the middle of the page.

This thread from Lightfighter Tactical has some really good info. Be warned, there is some language that wouldn't be acceptable here <img src="images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />. The Equipped pages are referenced and linked however
http://lightfighter.net/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=7336015661&f=2296024871&m=3606043503

Ed

Take a look at these:

http://www.lifesavingsystems.com/general/fm_lsc.htm

Look at these two vests:
#485-CG Life Preserver Survival Vest (LPSV)
#489 Pro Vest

Yes, I know of one highly unofficial test...
...because I myself conducted it in the unheated swimming pool of my best friend's apartment complex in Los Angeles. <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

This pool had so much shade that it got sun for, at most, half a dozen hours each day and stayed (at least to this Texas boy) very very cold at all times. My California friend rarely swam in it, because, for most of the year, it stayed too cold for her as well.

I was visiting her a couple of years back after having participated in Doug's liferaft testing. I had tried on an exposure suit for the first time during that testing and so had this kind of stuff on my mind. I had a couple of Space Bags in my Jeep and realized it would be a great time to test if they would work like the Land/Shark bag is supposed to. (It's a pity I didn't have one of those with me so I could compare them in the water.)

I ripped the first one by trying to unfold/deploy it in the pool. It still helped to keep me warm, but the rip was allowing way too much water to exchange, so I threw it out and tried again. These bags are quite fragile and can only be used when you can be calm and gentle enough to rest in them... no moving around or bumping into debris. You will have to have some flotation aid... treading water will rip them.

I unfolded the second bag on land and got inside it. Then, I refolded it as tightly as I could and put it in a ziplock bag. Deploying this one in the water proved much less difficult and I managed to do so without damaging it. I had no PFD on, and so, inevitably, my attempts to balance on floating pool toys for buoyancy eventually led to me stick a foot through the bag. I'm fairly certain that, had I been able to simply float with a vest, the bag would have lasted indefinitely.

Even with the small hole, I could tell a notable (translation: wonderful) increase in the temperature of the water in the bag with me as opposed to the water out in the pool. I was actually able to get comfortable and stop shivering. It's not very scientific, but that's just got to matter in delaying hypothermia. Getting out of the bag was a renewed shock ... I had become used to the temperature inside my bag o' water and the pool water was so much colder.

Stay safe,
J.T.

Interesting. I tried the "space blanket"(bag) thing some time ago, and sort of decided their real virtues were lack of weight and bulk, with anything else far behind. I found "sleeping" in the cold with them slightly more comfortable than dying. Maybe.

I find the Thermo-Lite stuff far more useable:

http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores...productId=99840

Still pretty cheap and small (stuff bag pictured is not to scale- check specs). Not perfect, but it's much more comfortable and vastly more durable.

I wonder how they'd do in the water? They are somewhat more permeable, which might be a slight negative, but they might be durable enough to actually work in real-world conditions.

Stuff Size: 3.75 in. x 6 in. ... I have a regular 30 degree mummy bag that packs down just slightly larger than that. I'm sure it weighs more though. I'm at work and it's at home so this info is "off the top of my head".

Are you a kayaker Matt? Hey, that makes two of us. <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Agree with your comments. The wider issue here seems to be the expected use and environment of your kit. I wear a PFD most weekends seakayaking, but I don't need much cold protection from the elements so I use one of these, in the summer anyhow:

https://secure.worldwebms.com/www.glascraft.com.au/showitem.php?itemCatid=25

Not quite the same animal as the PFD developed by the Florida guy, but with sensible additions, does the job for warm water seakayaking. Minimum bulk, maximum breathability. So comfortable and light you don't know its there. So you wear it. A more bulky backup PFD stays at home. I always carry a small knife [folder], personal EPIRB, and whistle on lanyards around my neck. I have added an ACR 360deg. white light as a permanent fixture to the inflatable PFD.
The downside of the inflatables are cost, and maintenance. Mine goes back to the manufacturer annually, as recommended, for factory check.
On trips I add yet more kit to my person: a rolled up 25ft floating strip for air rescue, small parachute flare, and smoke. Stuff that people tend to forget in survival situations: heavy suncream and lipcream are always in my PFD pocket. Again, a reflection [ excuse the pun ] of my extreme environment.
But this is still less bulky than the Florida rig, which I would say may be OK for certain inshore and inland power boating applications.
But if I was going offshore on there's no way I would rely on a PFD without a fully sorted out harness. All you have to do is look at the experiences of those who have survived being washed overboard through proper harnesses.

I agree. I keep an aluminized mylar blanket in a pocket of every jacket and coat I own. I don't use the "Space Blanket" brand, because they don't come folded flat, but in a bulkier fold, and, thus, don't fit in a pocket so well.



As long as I'm clothed, I find them not bad. Any exposed skin sticks to the material and adds to the noise and discomfort.



I absolutely agree. Quieter too.



Mine has velcro holding it together on part of some of the edges. It's broken strips; not continuous. That would let a lot more water exchange.


I realize now I should have done a comparison test with a trash bag borrowed from my friend. <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> D'oh! That would have given me an idea of how important the heat reflection is to warming the water, as opposed to merely trapping the water. I have my assumptions, but I'd rather have tests. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> Drat.


Stay safe,
J.T.

>>As long as I'm clothed, I find them not bad. Any exposed skin sticks to the material and adds to the noise and discomfort.<<

To each their own, I guess. I "slept" one night on the hood of a Ford, on a barrier island after an amazing storm, in the middle of a sea of knee-deep mud. That was worse, but...

I spent the better part of one night under a space blanket (haven't tried the bags) The thing made noise when I BREATHED, I was either too hot or too cold or parts of me were both, and humidity built up rapidly under any part that was covered, and it got sweaty, while any uncovered parts were freezing off, keeping me constantly moving. And it tore if you looked at it funny.

To be fair, I was having leg cramps at the time as well, which was unrelated (apparently salt depletion, I learned later), but I'd get these amazingly acute "charley horse" pains, and have to get up and dance around in the cold awhile to shake them off, by which time I was shivering uncontollably again. I think I slept a little that night, but I remember every minute of the dawning that morning, and I didn't come out of it with any affection for the space blanket at all.

Y'know, after your response, it occurred to me that I've never actually tried the Thermo-Lite bag, even briefly... just looked at it and put it away. Probably should have kept my mouth shut about it.

I have used the Thermo-Lite blanket, and it did much better. I took the blanket instead of the bag because I was traveling in an area where I thought rigging it as a sun shelter might become important, say, if the vehicle broke down... should be much cooler than inside it. It didn't come to that, of course, but it's something the blanket would do much better than the bag in the desert.